Photoshop templates for Photo Books

Some AdoramaPix customers feel more comfortable using Photoshop than our own PixPublisher book editing tool. Unfortunately, Photoshop users often had to guess at the width of the safe region, or spine on a particular book size.

To make their editing job easier, we have created a suite of PSD templates that contain snap-guides for the safe regions, spine edges, etc. This way you can feel confident that the layout you are creating will be a perfect fit for the book you ordered.

Depending on the number of pages in your book, the thickness of the spine will vary. For this reason there are multiple versions of the cover PSD available. Please click on the appropriate link in the table below to download the template for the spreads or covers for the book size you require.

There are two different paper thicknesses. These are reflected in different spine thicknesses depending on the paper you choose:

All templates are provided in PSD format. A layer has been added that spells out what the different regions are (safe area, etc. just hide or delete this layer before printing)

In our PixPublisher editor in the general category we have a template made for photoshop users called pre-constructed. This template is filled with full spread photo placeholders for the cover and all interior spreads. Those of you that make your spreads in PS can then save them as jpg or TIFF files, import them into pixpublisher with the pre-constructed template, and use auto-fill to assemble your book.

If the guides aren't showing up when you open the file, please make sure you have guides enabled (as shown below)

Comments

I've designed several books with other companies and have always done bleed art (images extend to the edge or off the page). In many templates the size is set to larger than the paper with a red boarder marked 'bleed' or 'trim.' What does AdoramaPix do for trimming the paper? I see there is a 'safe region' but is there also a trim line? Is an 8x12 book actually have pages that are 7.75" x 11.75"? This is an important feature for people creating books since without bleed there is a chance of thin white lines on the edges of the page if the page is trimmed imperfectly. This would be a good page to inform people of the bleed/trim standards of Adorama. - Thanks!

Thanks, I suspected such. Is there a figure associated with "slightly"? I ask since it would be good to know how much would be expected to be trimmed. I'm assuming that the adjustment made is either so slight that the crispness of text would not be effected, or perhaps you simply lower the print resolution so that the uploaded images don't receive any interpolation on your end. Perhaps in the future the system could accommodate planned bleed art.
The prints I've gotten from AdoramaPix have been excellent and I am looking forward to seeing your lay-flat books.

Does the preview show it without enlargement? I wish I had confirmation that I get it right, so that nothing gets cut off. It is showing with a white border in my preview, so it's not showing a true preview, correct?

If you are getting white borders in your [preview, assume they will be in the final output. No it isn't showing a 'true preview' only in the respect that its impossible to know in advance what sort of shifting will take place during print. You should make it look in the preview the way you want it to look in print, with the knowledge that a slight amount of the edge (up to 1/8") will likely be trimmed, but you cant count on exactly how much and on what side. i.e. you want it to look like your preview, but there is nothing right along the very edge that will matter if its gone.

The safety margins simply indicate the maximum tolerance of the trimming of the paper. Anything that you absolutely have to have in your final product needs to be inside the safety margins. This is not where the paper gets trimmed, but it might. The actual trim line is the outer edge of the template document. This would be called the trim line or where bleed artwork needs to extend past. Always design so that your important text and images lie within the safety margins. If you want to have artwork extend right to the edge of the page then you need to extend it past the safety margins to the trim line.

Adobe Lightroom contains a module for creating photo books and saving them as a pdf. This is nice, because it can also be used as an ebook on a phone or tablet. They seemed to be assuming Blurb as the printed book publisher. Can you use these Lightroom pdf books?

Claud. We do have the option for uploading a book in PDF form. As long as the size of the book you create is a match for one of our book sizes you should get good results. When you choose to make a photo book, the first screen you get offers you choices on the type of editor - at the bottom is the option for PDF.

Does it work to add my own .125" bleed to each side of my spread making it 24.25x12.25) upload that to fit to the 24" page spread so that when you enlarge it by~.125 in printing I will know what my 24x12" spread will look like? I have square images that bleed off the sides in grids and I don't want some to be a slight rectangular

I downloaded the 10x10 template for the specified number of pages. Although my image covers the entire template when I insert it in book and choose fit to spread it only spreads to the outside of safe zones. Is this the way it's supposed to be?

What is the best way to determine the center of the front cover? There is no guideline. I tried centering between spine edge and outside of safe zone but it doesn't look right when I view the book in preview.

Hi Michelle. On pages, your content only needs to go to the edges of the template. When working on covers, you should extend your content onto the flaps, otherwise you may get some white showing along the edges of your cover.

The center of the cover is between the spine edge and the outside of the safe zone. Please note that the flap (beyond the safe zone) isn't considered part of the cover. i.e. it gets wrapped around the inside of the book and the first and last page are glued over it.

I recently made a 12x9 photo book at Adoramapix (which I like very much) and now want to make 12x12 and 12x15 photo books, but in the tables above:

1. In the first table above (for Luster, Glossy, Linen & Pebble Papers), there are multiple links to download Inside Spread and Cover layout PSDs for 12x9 and 12x12 Book Shapes, but NO Cover layout PSDs at all for 12x15 books, just Inside Spreads — where can I download Cover layouts for 12x15 books with "Luster, Glossy, Linen & Pebble Papers"?

2. In the second table above (for "Deep Matte & Silk Papers”) there are full rows of Cover layout PSDs for 12x9 and 12x12 Book Shapes, but no entries for 12x15 books at all — where can I download Cover layouts for 12x15 books with "Deep Matte & Silk Papers"?

Hi Peter. The reason there aren't any cover layouts for 12x15 books is because they are only available with leather or leather-lux covers, not custom covers. Since there wasn't a need to design the cover for a 12X15 cover, the template wasn't provided.